Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Fritzl 'scared brothel's prostitutes'

Josef Fritzl, who locked his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and raped her repeatedly, was an "extreme pervert" who scared prostitutes with his controlling ways, it has been claimed.

Fritzl was in the top "two per cent" of deviants who visited a brothel in the city and would often be refused by the women who worked there, according to a barman in Linz.

The man, identified only as Christoph R, told the Österreich newspaper: "I have been working there for over six years and Fritzl was always a regular. He was bossy with everyone. He was treating the girls with champagne, but after some time he would start behaving like a teacher in school and say things like 'sit up!' or 'don't use that language!'.

"Ninety-five per cent of the guests are normal and three per cent are somewhat volatile. But Fritzl belonged to the two per cent of extreme perverts, who are nothing but mentally ill."

Fritzl, 73, confessed last week to imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth, now 42, in a cellar under his house in Amstetten, west of Vienna, for 24 years. In that time he fathered her seven children. Three were kept with their mother and never saw daylight until after their release, three were adopted and a seventh died shortly after birth.

Austrian MPs are to debate stricter punishments for sex offenders while making their criminal records widely available to social services.

Though a convicted sex offender, Fritzl was allowed to adopt three of the children after convincing authorities that they were his grand-children. According to Austrian law, records on sex offences become outdated after 15 years.

Fritzl served 18 months in prison in 1967 for rape. He was also charged with an attempted rape and indecent exposure in public, as well as arson in an alleged insurance fraud.

MPs from Austria's two far-Right parties, the Alliance for the Future of Austria and the Freedom Party, have demanded castration for repeated sex offenders, plus compulsory examinations of children for the purpose of detecting sexual abuse.